Most people have experienced that moment when they are dining and food drips or splashes on their clothes. The food is often hard or impossible to remove at that time if the person is outside of his or her home. The clothes are then soiled for the rest of the outing or even permanently. Bibs secured around the neck by ties, adhesive, or Velcro® are well known in the industry. Often the use of such a bib is for children. Such bibs may also be used by adults.
To protect clothing using a bib, a bib would need to be brought along or provided by an establishment. Many establishments do not provide bibs for children or adults. Bringing a bib along is the next best option. But if the bib is forgotten at home this option does not help the unfortunate diner who needs one. Furthermore, bringing along a bib requires a place to store the bib in transit. One's outfit or circumstances may prohibit transporting a bib (for example, no pockets or bag to put a bib into for carrying). But even if a bib is available, many children and adults would not wear a more traditional looking bib.
One other option is to just tuck a portion of a napkin in the collar of one's shirt. This is often hard to accomplish with many shirts and does not allow you to control the area protected by the napkin. This method of protecting one's clothing is also often not looked well upon in some dining establishment or thought to not be good manners by many people.
A solution to the use of a bib tied around the neck or stuffing a napkin in one's shirt is offered by U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,922 (922). The '922 patent discloses a multipurpose clamp that may be affixed to a shirt with one end and holds a portion of a napkin in the other end. While effective in providing protection to the front of a shirt, the method requires having an appropriate clip that may be unsightly, hard to find, or expensive to obtain. Furthermore, the clip may stress the button connection to the shirt due to the weight of the clip.
What is clearly needed is an inexpensive, easily used, light weight, and easily carried method of protecting one's clothes from being soiled while consuming food and beverages.